April 12, 2017 3:01pm EDTApril 12, 2017 3:01pm EDTMelbourne coach Craig Bellamy believes it would be a big mistake to reduce the number of interchanges from eight to six amid persistent rumours the NRL is set to implement the change.

The theory is that the reduction would increase the fatigue factor for players and reduce the intensity of collisions, therefore decreasing the number of concussions.

But Bellamy isn’t a fan of the possible change.

“The one thing I do know, because of HIAs (Head Injury Assessments) and how strict we are on those now, which is a good thing, if we do lower the interchange I just see a stage where we’re going to have uneven numbers at the end of a game, so we don’t want that,” Bellamy said.

“Unless someone gets sent off, which hardly ever happens these days either, you don’t want a team of 13 playing against a team of 12 for the last 10 minutes of a game.

“That’s just a bad look for our game if it happens too often.”

Bellamy said if the NRL does decide to reduce the interchanges from eight to six an 18th man would be a ‘real necessity’.

But the veteran coach warned a reduction could actually lead to an increase in head knocks.

“They’re talking about going to six interchanges, they think perhaps if teams are more fatigued then the collisions won’t be as hard and perhaps the head injuries are not going to be as common,” he said.

“But I look at it a little bit of a different way, I think most guys when they get their head into wrong positions in tackle and they get a bump it’s because they are fatigued.

“So we might have more HIAs if we go to six interchanges if we’ve got more fatigued players.”